Samus: Apprentice Hunter
by Kaffe Kane
Summary: This is set before the original Metroid game. Samus Aran, an apprentice bounty hunter, gets wrapped up in a fiasco involving Space Pirates, an evil secret society, and ancient disks known as ME (pronounced may).
1. Her Next Mission

This fan-fic is one half of a prequel to the greatness of John Morey and  
  
Blake Wales. It is the side of the story that involves Samus Aran.  
  
------------------------------  
  
Samus: Apprentice Hunter *Decided to change the title*  
  
Chapter 1 - Her Next Mission  
  
Samus was familiar with the whole spiele involving what she had done. It  
  
wasn't even two days ago when she demolished the Subway Restaurant on Freigo   
  
Street. She had beratings out the wazoo from Keaton, who was an idiot. Her   
  
CO, Adam Malkovich, had called her to a most unusual spot for a mission   
  
breifing, a bathroom, as he was probably in a rush to do other business. She   
  
was only part-way through the breifing...(Where the dialogue will begin.)  
  
"Why talk to me while you're taking a crap, anyway?"  
  
"Well, here's something that you missed." Samus paces back and forth.  
  
"Hel-lo, you didn't answer my last question."  
  
"Lady, I'm in a hurry, if you don't mind. I have to see Keaton about   
  
something when I get off of the toilet. An unknown party has hired Space  
  
Pirates for some kind of cargo siege." Samus groans.  
  
"Pirates out there? That's something outta my league." Adam shrugs.  
  
"Why wouldn't there be? They're everywhere, Lady." Samus paused   
  
in thought as Adam procured a device. What if these were the same pirates  
  
that attacked her family...her home colony? She remembered how scared she  
  
was, and that her mother, Leah, had told her to hide. She didn't remember  
  
anything else other than the Chozo finding her in the ruins.  
  
"Samus? Samus? Lady, I have your mission!" He displays a hologram on the   
  
portable device. Samus looks at some of it, glancing at one of the names.  
  
"Locuthis Schneider? Last mission I heard he had, it was to protect a famous  
  
author from being assassinated. I also heard that he hired a pathetic sniper  
  
who couldn't tell a rifle's barrel from its butt to perform the assassination.   
  
He's a cheap asshole who's only in this for glory points. He wants to work   
  
beside the most famous of all the bounty hunters: me, Samus Aran, the girl   
  
wonder of the galaxy." Adam laughs nervously.   
  
'Girl wonder? It's a wonder she wasn't arrested yet.' "Well, I'm glad that   
  
you've still got your attitude, Lady. It'll help you put up with him." Samus   
  
blankly smiled at Adam for a moment, while it began to click into her fantasy.   
  
Her face then turned into the most contorted expression of anger that an   
  
anime artist could express.  
  
"WHAT?! I DEMAND THAT YOU GIVE ME A DIFFERENT PARTNER! Houston, Boba Fatt,  
  
hell, even that...that...that green bean Chairman, Keaton! I would much  
  
rather put up with his incessant YOU'RE INCOMPETENT shouts than work with  
  
Schneider!" A man inside a black and streamlined Varia-type Power Suit walks   
  
in.  
  
"Welllll...so you'd much rather have Keaton shouting in -your- ear rather than  
  
Hardy's? You're as tough as they say. But then again, everyone hates him."  
  
Samus scowls at Schneider.  
  
"Everyone hates you, too." Schneider steps back a moment.  
  
'Damn, she is a tough one to shake up.' "Well, you're not everybody." He   
  
offers Samus his hand to shake. Samus looks down and smirks evilly, grabbing  
  
his arm tightly and pulling him toward her.  
  
"Thanks, I'll remove your arm and clout you on the head." He immediately  
  
pulls away from her and backs up another step.  
  
'Shit...even tougher to shake than I thought.' "Anyway, I wanted to say that,  
  
um..." Samus' face turns back to an irritated look.  
  
"All that 'honor to meet you' crap? Save it. I got no honor for you. I   
  
don't even have a good reputation...yet." Both Samus and Schneider walk out of   
  
the bathroom with Schneider basically talking Samus' ear off about all the   
  
marvelous feats he had done as a bounty hunter, but...*record scratch*-let's   
  
turn briefly to Hardy (also inside of a bathroom) for a little funny part, eh?  
  
Hardy peeks out of the stall to see a big man, way fatter than he was, in a  
  
green general's outfit. He wedges himself into the widest stall (which is  
  
still too small for him), and laughs to himself.  
  
"Gya, ha, ha! They don't make bathrooms for men like us, do they?" Hardy  
  
couldn't help overhearing the fat guy mutter.  
  
"No, they don't. I seriously wish that Keaton had made more standardization  
  
for the obese."  
  
"Ah, well. Bigger oaf than we, eh? Gyaa, ha, ha, haa! So-" The fat guy  
  
tries to pull himself out of the stall, but can't even move off of the toilet.  
  
"Aw, crap. Shouldn'ta pushed my luck. Hey, you're the security chief, right?  
  
Can you, you know...call a crew down here to get me out of this stall?"  
  
"I'm already on it." Hardy dials the number on his cell phone. "Hello? We  
  
have a problem. There's a fat guy stuck in a bathroom stall-NO, IT'S NOT  
  
ME!!! Someone else who's even bigger than I am!"  
  
"GYAAA, HAA, HAAA!"  
  
----------------------------  
  
Samus had to go whereever Schneider went, after having read the contract  
  
orders. She was his partner, but she was also a liability, being an   
  
apprentice hunter, and she so wanted to see Schneider's face if she got  
  
lost on purpose with him. She wanted to put herself in as much danger as  
  
possible and see what his demeanor would be towards her. But she knew better,  
  
she was being put on a probationary measure that meant her own personal hunts  
  
had to go on the back burner.  
  
"Say, Miss Aran? I think you could use a laugh before we work. How about we  
  
go to the Funny Bunny Comedy parlor and see the performances?" Samus looks  
  
at Schneider with her usual 'I will kill you if you piss me off' glare and  
  
walks inside of the parlor doors. Schneider follows her in, just as a limo  
  
arrives. He motions to the bouncer and gives him 500 Credits secretly.  
  
"She's with me. Take it or give it to someone else, I don't want it." The  
  
bouncer grunts. The bouncer stops someone else at the door and says:  
  
"You fix cable?"  
  
--------------------------------  
  
"The last few acts were really blah. They were all from that one temp group.  
  
I don't know what it was called, but whatever." Schneider waves his hand  
  
at no particular direction. Samus leans over to look at the front-most  
  
table.  
  
"Hey! Is that Adam Malkovich?! So this is his business with Keaton."  
  
"And now...Armstrong Houstonnnn!" A guy dressed in a dress and fruit hat  
  
falls on the stage after pushing away the curtains. Samus laughs at the oaf,  
  
watching him struggle to get up on the platform heels that he was wearing.  
  
Samus turns away while he continues to fall twice more, watching a group of   
  
police enter. A fat guy turns to face them.  
  
"Ah, so you're finally here. Why does it take you idiots hours to trace a  
  
call and set up a rescue team?" The sergeant walks up to Hardy.  
  
"We were all set, but we couldn't find our jaws-of-life, so..." Hardy  
  
facefalls.  
  
"AAGH! You mean to tell me that-" Music plays further toward the stage.  
  
"EVERYBODY LOVES HAR-DY!!!" Hardy shakes his head. More nonsense about  
  
him. It was like this all evening with those last acts. Hardy sighs.  
  
"Whatever, I've got you to deal with." Hardy points to the sergeant. "Do  
  
you have the jaws-of-life now?"  
  
"Yes, sir. We can perform rescue right away."  
  
(Inside the bathroom) The guy in the green general outfit is still on the  
  
toilet. "On top of spaghetti...oh, God, I want some spaghetti." His stomach  
  
growls.  
  
(Back in the parlor) "He's a healthy eat-er, and that's a 'fat'!"  
  
Samus looks at the fool on the stage.  
  
"I guess I can tolerate asking you a question or two." Schneider looks  
  
at Samus with interest.  
  
"Fire away then, Samus." Samus brushes her hair out of the way.  
  
"Who the hell is Hardy?" Schneider's head slams on the table.  
  
"Who is Hardy?" He laughs at that question. "He's that fat guy over there.  
  
James Hardy, the Galactic Federation Chief of Security."  
  
"Oh, a cop." Samus rolls her eyes. "So, who's the joker on stage?"  
  
"Heh...Armstrong Houston, a bounty hunter. He's pathetic. Hardly gets  
  
work because he doesn't come to a CO for commissions, he'd rather they  
  
come to him. Have you even SEEN the condition of filth he lives in?"  
  
Samus squirms a moment. This guy was a slob?  
  
"Gods, I wouldn't wanna work with him."  
  
"Ah, changed your mind about working with Houston, have you? Well, then.  
  
I'd like to give you some information. Work alone or with me, it's your  
  
choice, but in the end, I'll always still be beside you." Samus slaps his  
  
arm.  
  
"Nice try, perv-guy." Schneider grunts and takes a sip from his water glass.  
  
And Houston sang on, to the cheers and laughs of the audience...  
  
---------------------------------  
  
"Schneider." He looks at Samus. She didn't have her usual mad face at him.  
  
It was actually more of a blank...sad face, even if she wasn't looking at  
  
him, he could tell.  
  
"What?" She shakes her head. What could be worse than facing pirates?  
  
Worried about several things, Samus looks up at Schneider and weakly smiles.  
  
"I...guess I should go check in with Ezzie and tell him I got a job. He's  
  
always worried about when I'm gone for more than six hours. You don't mind  
  
my going alone, do you? I can take care of myself."  
  
"That's fine. I need to do some preparations for us, anyway. I'd be better  
  
off alone, also." Samus and Schneider part ways on the sidewalk, Samus  
  
heading westward to the apartments that she lived at. Schneider, however,  
  
ducked into an alley. He looked around and then whispered. Three men in  
  
black suits walk up to him.  
  
"Mr. Schneider...We were expecting you. Do you have the information?"  
  
Schneider hands over a disk.  
  
"Thank you. This will tell us where the 'ME' are. You will be ascertained  
  
to recieve some of them." Schneider also hands them a card.  
  
"50,000 Credits. I want you to deal with a small problem." The men in black  
  
look at Schneider.  
  
"Oh. Oh! You mean her. Yes. We will keep her nose out of trouble for her  
  
own good. Count on the agents of Marduk...she will either fear us, or die."  
  
---------------------------------  
  
Samus knocked on the door. "Ezzie? Ezzie? You awake?" She hears someone  
  
shout faintly across the door.  
  
"Yeah! I'm in the tub right now!" Samus opens the door.  
  
"Get your head out of the gutter, you-" She drops her jaw in shock. For   
  
once, the place was clean. Spotless without her needing to do anything.  
  
"...you...ah...cleaned without me. I guess you must already know, then."  
  
"Yeah. Adam told me about your job. Going after pirates, eh? Must be going  
  
up on the ladder of your ranks. They actually trust you with that."  
  
"Not completely...not yet. They have a senior hunter with me." Ezzie pokes  
  
his head out from the bathroom door. His face looked as though he was dis-  
  
gusted with something.  
  
"Yeah...Schneider, though? As in...Locuthis Schneider? He's a glory hog,  
  
I'll give him that. He takes every active commission and wraps it all up  
  
in a single day. It's like he sets it all up to be easy for him-"  
  
"I know, and earns twice what he pays his goons! Oh well." Samus walks to  
  
the door. Ezzie rushes out of the bathroom wearing a pair of khaki pants.  
  
"Hey! Tell Houston to come on over, I haven't seen him in a while." Samus  
  
looks up suddenly. Houston? Wasn't he the guy on stage earlier...?  
  
-----------------------------------  
  
Samus had no idea where to find Houston, when she heard someone mumbling  
  
from outside of his open doorway.  
  
"What should I buy for this? Maybe some extra Missile Packs...Energy Tanks.  
  
No! Wait! Missile and Beam Upgrades! Yah! Missiles and Beams!" Samus  
  
peeks inside of the apartment.  
  
"Oh, gods...what a mess. Worse than Ezzie." Houston turns to face Samus.  
  
"Who's Ezzie?" Samus steps into the apartment, raising her legs over a  
  
pile of dirty clothes.  
  
"My roommate. Game freak, uber-big-time."  
  
"Wait...Ezzie Watskirchan?"  
  
"That'd be him." Houston trips over a cord.  
  
"Shit! I've not visited him in a month! Never seen you around here, though.  
  
Maybe ya just were locked in your tidy little space of a room." Samus walks  
  
up to Houston and motions to punch him.  
  
"It SO happens that I have lived here for two years as an apprentice bounty  
  
hunter on Alpha Centauri Station! Now, if YOU think that Ezzie is as much  
  
of a mess-monger as you, you're sorely mistaken!" Samus looks at the sink.   
  
Piled with dirty plates. "He DOES do the dishes. And he vacuums the floor,  
  
when there isn't stuff all over it. It's my job to keep stuff off of it  
  
as much as I can while there." 'Although he did clean without me tonight.'  
  
"And what do you do for rent and bills? And food??" Samus folds her arms.  
  
"He's got a steady job as a game designer. Works for Nintendo." Houston  
  
picks up some dirty T-shirts.  
  
"Ooh, big whoop. The oldest and best game company aside of SquareEnix."  
  
Houston throws the shirts into a basket. "It so happens that I'm treating  
  
myself to a clean apartment because I got me a big-ass lump sum of Creds,  
  
and you only get chump change with your job, if you can get one!" That  
  
stung Samus like a hornet's entire nest. She wasn't boiling at this guy  
  
earlier, but now she was, and hit him so hard that he toppled over the  
  
couch that he was knocked into.  
  
"SON OF A BITCH! Don't you DARE diss me! I've been trained to fight, and  
  
quite possibly for years more than you! You're just some filthy asshole  
  
who got filthy rich quick! And how?! By dressing up as the Chiquita Banana  
  
Lady and singing about Hardy! You are so LOW and RUDE!! I would never work  
  
with you on a bounty mission!" Houston struggles up over the couch.  
  
"FINE! I'm quitting the Guild soon, anyway! I'd HATE TO BE YOUR PARTNER!  
  
SOMEONE WHO WOULD BE THE ABSOLUTE SLEAZEBALL PUTTING UP WITH YOUR BULLSHIT,  
  
JUST SO HE CAN TRY TO GET A PIECE OF YOUR ASS!" Samus walks outside the door  
  
as it closes, then punches it, causing a large dent in the door. Schneider  
  
looks at Samus with surprise.  
  
"Did that hurt?" Samus looks down at her hand. Red, and it did hurt.  
  
"Yeah. I'm lucky I'm not bleeding. I shouldn't have hit the door that hard."  
  
She hears Houston scream and swear about the door being jammed shut because of  
  
the sizeable dent she made. "Oh well, it serves him right. He ought to be  
  
quarantined in that pigsty." Samus shakes her sore hand and walks away.  
  
"Miss Aran? You might want your Power Suit for this job." Samus looks at  
  
Schneider, grinning.  
  
"Naw. I don't need it. Not yet, anyway. We aren't leaving the station for  
  
a while. I just saw something suspicious while heading back here...and I   
  
think that it's our quarry."  
  
-------------------------------  
  
(The next chapter gets a little silly and serious at the same time. I've  
  
decided to blot out what little DBZ elements were in here and call it an   
  
'unknown party' instead. After all, spies in the Federation don't get a  
  
lot of info these days. ^_^) 


	2. All about ME

Chapter 2: "All about ME"  
  
Samus entered the old backstreet tavern and looked around. Quite an unusual  
  
bunch of aliens were inside. They all looked like they were bug-headed, with  
  
crab-like claws reaching well past their hands. Most of them had purple and  
  
blue carapaces covering their bodies, but one or two were green. There were  
  
three humans (so Samus had thought) in black, swanky suits wearing sunglasses  
  
of the same color. They look over to Schneider, who just entered behind  
  
Samus a moment ago. One of them cocks his head sharply and Schneider goes to   
  
sit with them.  
  
'Right...you have your ways, I have mine.' Samus walks over to the bathrooms,  
  
stopping just outside the doors to hear a deep, partly rasping voice  
  
complaining about the size of the door being way to small for him to fit.  
  
Samus stifles a laugh and then walks into the ladies restroom.  
  
"Damn, why do they not accomodate for those bigger than humans? I'm starting  
  
to get sick of this. Why did we even take that job to find those 'ME'?"  
  
The voice growls and Samus hears a crash. She looks out the door crack and  
  
sees something she wouldn't believe.  
  
A large, red-skinned dinosaur. She opens the door all of the way and   
  
continues to look at the figure.  
  
"So they're NOT extinct." The figure whirls around and hits Samus with his  
  
tail. She crashes into a wall, and the figure walks up to the hole. Samus  
  
struggles to at least sit upright. She looks at the long spines on his  
  
tail, thanking the whole Chozo pantheon that she wasn't stuck with one  
  
of them.  
  
"Uh. Still alive. I guess that means that I can give you a tip. NEVER CALL  
  
ME A DINOSAUR!! I AM A DRAGON!!" The dragon turns around after hearing a  
  
light whining noise behind him. He looks at the source of the noise, coming  
  
from the cannon of Schneider's Power Suit.  
  
"I suggest that you stay away from her. I can and will have you turned over  
  
to Federation authorites for detainment on the charges of assault on an   
  
apprentice bounty hunter and attempted...erm...woman-slaughter." Samus rubs  
  
her neck.  
  
"Sexist." The dragon laughs.  
  
"You honestly think that you can defeat Ridley? I am not just Mother Brain's  
  
elite pirate commander for nothing. I have other business to tend to, and  
  
I just so happened to have...uh...where is it? DAMMIT, WHO TOOK THE 'ME'?!"  
  
Samus ducks away out of the tavern through the back door. The three men in  
  
black follow. "SLY LITTLE WITCH! I'LL KILL YOU!"  
  
"YOU'RE GOING THROUGH ME FIRST!" Schneider fires a charged blast at Ridley  
  
and then several missiles. Ridley ducks and sweeps at Schneider with his  
  
tail. Schneider jumps and fires another Missile at Ridley, who then rolls   
  
into the bar, casuing it to flatten.  
  
'I must be getting fat if I can do that. Gotta get into a bit more action.'  
  
Ridley looks up at Schneider with what looks like an evil grin. "COME HERE,  
  
YOU!" Schneider rushes Ridley as he expects and Ridley lets out a big  
  
blast of fire.  
  
"SCHIZA! That's hot!" Schneider jumps back and runs after Samus. Ridley  
  
pounds the ground and scratches a plank of wood. A few of the aliens walk  
  
over to Ridley.  
  
"...I must be losing my touch. Out-foxed by an apprentice hunter that...  
  
called me a dinosaur." Ridley grins and begins to laugh, happily.  
  
"Finally, a match! A PERFECT MATCH!" Ridley gets up and motions for the  
  
aliens to follow him. "We are going to find out her name...and then we will  
  
see just what she is truly capable of..."  
  
--------------------------------  
  
Samus had been going full sprint down the alleys after sneaking away from  
  
that dragon. She looked behind her to see if anyone was following, but  
  
didn't see anyone, so she stopped.  
  
Unexpectedly, and out of nowhere, the three men in black from that tavern  
  
appeared and surrounded Samus. One of them stepped forward once.  
  
"Miss Aran-derson (little Matrix spoof)...you have something that we want.  
  
Give me that ME disk." Samus fingered the ancient-looking CD.  
  
"This? Why not let me give it to the Federation, and then you can take  
  
it from them?" The one who spoke to her took another step forward.  
  
"We can't do that. We must have that disk. Even if we make you co-operate  
  
by force." The other two reach into their jackets, but don't pull anything  
  
out yet. Samus backs away.  
  
"Look, lemme give this disk to Keaton and get paid, m'kay? I've got to make  
  
a living too."  
  
"Oh, no. We can't do that. You might find out too much. Give it to me,  
  
and you won't hear from us again...unless you get another one."  
  
"Too much about what? What's so important about this thing that you would  
  
pester me if I got another?" Samus holds the ME up for the men to see.  
  
"Why, the secrets of Earth, Samus. Who existed on it, what cultures were  
  
created, information so advanced that hummanity could not have comprehended  
  
it...in fact, humanity didn't even exist at one point and time. We are on a  
  
search, for the AN.UNNA.KI. We want to find their homeworld. It is so close  
  
to Earth...and yet eludes our grasp. Give me that ME." The three men each   
  
pull out a plasma pistol and advance on Samus slowly.  
  
"STOP RIGHT THERE!" The three men turn around. "I AM THE DEFENDER OF TV  
  
PROGRAMMING! I STAND FOR FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND UNCENSORED SHOWS!" Another  
  
guy that the three men now face poses. "I AM...CABLE GUY!" He poses more.  
  
"AND IN THE NAME OF ALL THINGS TV...I SHALL PUNISH YOU!" Samus sighs and  
  
shakes her head.  
  
'Houston...what exactly is that moron up to now?' Samus jumps onto a fire  
  
escape and runs up it to a building roof. 'Now would be a good time for my  
  
Power Suit.' As if on cue, a small, yellow, Chozo Mailar-type Power Suit is  
  
set behind her. She turns around and sees Schneider clutching it, and with  
  
an irritating suggestibility, too.  
  
"I would have been there sooner, but I thought you might need this." Samus  
  
slaps Schneider's helmet and dons her Power Suit. She then dashes in the  
  
direction of the Headquarters building and leaps from roof to roof. She was  
  
going to give Keaton the ME, and at the same time, see what was on it.  
  
----------------------------------  
  
Keaton just stared in awe at the display. He was impressed that such an old  
  
disk would run, but had no idea of its contents. Things about ancient human  
  
civilization and how it began, how humans truly came to be, and what the  
  
truth of the Great Flood was. Now, humans had a different story about them-  
  
selves to swallow: the most modern humans were still part-alien. Now then,  
  
would they racially categorize themselves?  
  
"Samus, we have a watershed on the anti-racism campaign!! We can effectively  
  
say that even humans are not so totally different...but...then...what does  
  
that make of us?" Keaton looks down at the old, cyan-colored CD. "I must  
  
know more. You say that you've determined that Space Pirates are after  
  
these ME discs?" Samus nods.  
  
"Their leader, Ridley, had the one that you're looking at. It may not have  
  
had such importance to him, though." Keaton beamed.  
  
"Of course not. I could further my service as Chairman by another electoral  
  
term with this!" Samus rolls her eyes.  
  
'Duh, you just fork it over to your secret superiors and presto! Instant  
  
rigged election.' "Why would some of your flunkies attack me?" Samus blurts.  
  
Keaton looks up at her.  
  
"...What? Why are you pushing your luck at a time like this?!" Samus slams  
  
her hand on Keaton's desk.  
  
"I'm serious, Chairman! Three MiB's attacked me!" Keaton gasps. This was  
  
not their normal behaviour. They were supposed to keep secrets, not hunt  
  
bounty hunters.  
  
"Well...I'll call Agent Sumisu about it. Can't have them running that amok,  
  
can we?" Samus walks over to the door and turns to face Keaton.  
  
"No, you can't. None of you secret-keepers can."  
  
--------------------------------  
  
Schneider waited in the police office section of the HQ building. He had  
  
wondered what took Samus so long, but didn't bother to ask. Despite his  
  
sleaze, to the right person he could be brutally honest. Samus was one of   
  
those people; he felt she couldn't be lied to even if he tried.  
  
"Schneider. You look like you had two cents to throw at me." He casts a  
  
fearful glare at Samus.   
  
'She caught on THAT fast?!' "Yes...I wanted to know what took so long."  
  
Samus continued walking, with Schneider following.  
  
"Well, if you have to know, Keaton had an important call that I decided to  
  
oversee. Do you know anyone named 'Sumisu'?" Schneider stopped for a moment.  
  
Do-or-die. Time to find out if Samus could be lied to. He answers without  
  
pause.  
  
"No." Samus stops and looks toward him.   
  
'No? How could he not know? Those men exuded the aura of his money. Oh,  
  
well. I will play coy to his lie.' "Alright. So, where are we going next?"  
  
Hardy enters through the door. Houston follows inside of his own Power Suit,  
  
a blue, blocky-looking Varia-type. Schneider nods and Samus looks at Hardy.  
  
"How about where he sends you?" They all walk into Hardy's office. Quite  
  
spacious, even if the decor was exactly like Keaton's. They all guessed it  
  
was so Hardy had room to move. "Sir? Would you care to give us your detail?"  
  
Hardy clears his throat as he sits in his chair. "As Houston and I already  
  
know, Space Pirates caused a scene outside of a tavern in Sector 8-8A. When  
  
we got there, there were only three people left alive, and very badly burnt.  
  
The rest were all roasted to ash, and the whole scene was like a well   
  
contained bomb went off. Suffice to say, Ridley does mean business." Hardy  
  
activates a projector with pictures of what the area looked like. One whole  
  
block south of the tavern was gone. Nothing left standing. The survivors  
  
were grotesquely blackened and looked like they were already dead. Samus  
  
shuddered in horror. It was worse than her home, but in a small space.  
  
"Houston told me that Samus was attacked by three men dressed in black suits  
  
while she was escaping the other way. He distracted them and then escaped  
  
himself. I called Keaton a minute before arrival here and he told me about   
  
what all this happened over." On cue, Keaton enters holding the ME disk.  
  
Adam was with him, too.  
  
"Lady and Gentlemen, Exhibit A." Hardy clears his throat again.  
  
"This disk contains data about a history of Earth even far before Atlantis.  
  
Who created it, we don't know yet." Samus looks up at Hardy.  
  
"I have to ask...what are the AN.UNNA.KI? Those three MiB's said that they  
  
were looking for their homeworld." Keaton looks down glumly.  
  
'So, that is why...the Marduk Cult wants the ME. They want to find Nibiru  
  
and conquer it. But...why Nibiru? Why don't they look for a ME containing  
  
data about a nuclear weapon? Unless...the Anunnaki have developed something  
  
far worse. Sumisu...I will have your number.' "HEY!" Everyone jumps.  
  
Keaton darts his head around.  
  
"You all are going to be given a dangerous mission. One far more dangerous  
  
than dealing with regular ol' Space Pirates. You are to find the ME that  
  
has the data about the planet Nibiru." Keaton looks around again. "Now,  
  
to answer some of your questions, I have heard of Nibiru, the homeworld of  
  
the Anunnaki. I don't, however, know where it is, other than in the Solar  
  
System. It's orbit makes it normally unlocatable expect by those who have  
  
been there."  
  
"So it's imperative that we get that ME before anyone else?" Schneider asks.  
  
'Now I feel like a fool for what I have done. I have...made things worse.  
  
Serving the Marduk Cult...what side do I take?' Schneider shakes his head.  
  
'Of course. The side that pays more. So all I need to do is offer my help  
  
to them after finding out how much this pays from the Federation.' 


	3. My Memories

Chapter 3: "My Memories"  
  
Samus left Houston's apartment early. She saw that Houston still asleep,  
  
even after cleaning off the floor, and left. She looked around for if  
  
anyone was present, then went to her apartment and put on her Power Suit.  
  
Just as she walked out of the apartment door, she saw a disturbance outside  
  
through the windows of the apartment hallway.  
  
"Oh, shit. Not now. Not while I'm on probation." Samus dashes to the  
  
stairwell and hurries to get outside. "I'm not supposed to handle this  
  
without Schneider or some other bounty hunter near me...and I'm not about  
  
to wake up Houston, either." Samus thinks for a moment. 'Handle it, I  
  
shall, though. It is my duty, given by the Chozo.' She arrives outside  
  
in the parking lot and continues to run at the now apparent fight. It was  
  
that big red dragon again, and he just swiped the three MiB's he was up  
  
against savagely. He looked different, he seemed consumed by fury, and  
  
his eyes glowed a bright, golden yellow.  
  
"Y...you! Do you have any idea how much damage you caused? How many  
  
lives were lost?!" The dragon just roared and charged at her. She leapt  
  
to the side and fired several blasts of energy at him. Her cannon missed  
  
most of the blasts, though, because of a little range issue. "Dammit, why  
  
did Gul'Gen give me a slap-dashed piece of crap Power Suit?! Aah!" She  
  
jumps away from Ridley's tail, which he used to stab at Samus, approaching  
  
her with every attack. She leaps onto a balcony, and Ridley looks up.  
  
A hail of energy blasts falls toward him, only one or two glancing off of  
  
his beak, nearly blinding him and irritating him without the psychic  
  
assistance of Mother Brain's mental alterations. He roared and let out  
  
a blast of fire at Samus, who leapt onto a balcony across. Ridley turned  
  
his head while still breathing fire. The flames slowly closed in on the  
  
balcony Samus was standing on.  
  
'What the hell is he doing? Buying me time? Is he really holding back?'  
  
Samus looks around quickly for another way to defeat, or at least escape  
  
Ridley. She spots something glowing up on Houston's balcony, two floors  
  
above. She watches the fire catch the balcony and leaps up to the next  
  
floor. She looks back down at Ridley and watches as he stops his fire-  
  
breathing and leaps onto the wall, grabbing it with his talons.  
  
"Shit!" She leaps up onto the next floor balcony as Ridley tries to pounce  
  
Samus, and she touches a Missile Tank when grabbing onto the ledge. The  
  
balcony crashes under Ridley's feet and falls to the burning one underneath,  
  
but he is still up in the air. Samus continues to look down at Ridley, and  
  
notices a small vertical bar appear on the left side of her visor, also seeing  
  
that Ridley was flying. "I thought that those wings were for show! Man, it  
  
looks like it's time to clip 'em!" Samus switches her cannon to Missile mode  
  
and fires all five rounds into Ridley's face, just before he flies up to bite  
  
Samus on the heels. Ridley screeches and falls to the ground, on top of the  
  
wooden planks that burned. His skin was used to heat, but wasn't burn-proof,  
  
and the fires painfully seared into his wings. He screeched again and rolled  
  
off of the burning remnants, looking at his wings, with holes burned into the  
  
membranes of skin. Samus took the opportunity to charge at him while he  
  
roared again, this time, instead of breathing fire he had Samus' cannon inside  
  
of his mouth. "Don't force me to have to pump your guts full of plasma."  
  
Ridley backed away slowly. To Samus' surprise, he began to laugh. His eyes,  
  
the harsh glowing quit, and they looked almost human.  
  
"It is just as I thought...you CAN equal me. Even with that crummy, low-end  
  
Power Suit. You probably could have done so without it, too. Too bad that  
  
your brother couldn't watch. I must say, for the time that Mother Brain was  
  
controlling me, it was a spectacle. Marduk's men are nothing on you."  
  
Samus looked at him through the helmet. He felt so familiar, it was no  
  
surprise to her that he said she had a brother. She couldn't remember it all,  
  
just the pirates' attack and the Chozo saving her, raising her, teaching her  
  
forbidden Torizo fighting methods. (Forbidden, at least, for the Chozo to  
  
use, as they couldn't kill.) "How would you like to know that...I knew your  
  
parents...hm? I had only just met them that day. Now I remember your name.  
  
Say it to me, so that I can assure myself of being right."  
  
Samus was glaring at him with contempt, but that changed when he said he had  
  
known her name. Her expression changed to fear, a cold, nameless fear that  
  
she felt...like it was an awful memory waiting to awaken. "S-Samus. Samus  
  
Leah Aran." Ridley let out a loud 'HA!' at that.  
  
"So I was right. You...have become quite different from the scared little  
  
girl who hid when the Gammans attacked." Samus looked at Ridley quizziacally.  
  
"Gammans?" Ridley nods.  
  
"You call them 'Space Pirates'. I work for their leader, Mother Brain."  
  
Samus felt a flood of...something rushing into her head. She couldn't  
  
believe what she saw. Looking through her eyes as when she was a child.  
  
It was...that day that the Pirates attacked.  
  
------------------------------------  
  
"You propose that we do work for you and your leader if we're going to live  
  
in Gamma Sector? Out of the question. I was burned once before, and I will  
  
not turn my back on who I now support: The Federation." Samus walks up to  
  
the man that was talking to Ridley. He looked like a rugged marine, back  
  
from a fierce war that took place recently. He wore a silver-colored Power  
  
Suit, Varia-type was her guess, that was really grungy and dirty. He must  
  
have got back from a big battle.  
  
'This man...he was my father.' (SO...IT IS TRUE. AN ARAN STILL LIVES.  
  
THEN WE MUST BE CAUTIOUS. ARAN IS DANGEROUS. THEY ALL WERE.) Samus  
  
looked around for that echoing, cybernetic voice that sounded inside of  
  
her mind. She felt an odd haunting, like this was a part of her that  
  
she wasn't supposed to know. She tried to shut it out, but the more  
  
she fought, the clearer she remembered.   
  
'NO! STOP IT! PLEASE! I DON'T WANT TO SEE THIS!' (BUT YOU MUST. YOU  
  
ARE AN ARAN. YOU MUST KNOW WHAT YOU FACE. WE MUST KNOW WHY YOU FIGHT.  
  
WHAT YOU FIGHT FOR. WHAT YOUR ENEMY IS. YOU MUST KNOW...) Samus continued  
  
to look around. Visions of every memory she had between that day and now  
  
flashed around her, and she walked forward, closer to a large glass   
  
containment that was partially illuminated by the rapidly flashing visions.  
  
'What are you?!' (WE ARE GAMMANS...M...O...T...H...E...R...B...R...A...I...N.  
  
WE ARE SPEAK TO YO-OU NOW. UNDERSTAND...T...H...A...T...WE DO NOT WISH HARM  
  
TO...A...NY...WHO IS AFRAID OF US.)  
  
"The Federation is scared of you! Why attack any of them?!"  
  
(WE ARE KNOWING WHAT FEARS US...THEY DO NOT! THEY ARE CON-N-N-N-FIDENT...THAT  
  
THEY WILL WIN AGAINST US. YOU FEAR-S-S-S US. WE WILL ATTACK, IF YOU ARE NOT  
  
AFRAID. WE HAVE HONOR OF ONE'S-S-S-S-S FEAR. WE CAN...HELP!--OVERCOME THAT  
  
FEAR. TAKE OURS GUIDANCE, AN-N-D BE AFRAID NO MORE.)  
  
"I won't submit to you! I WON'T SERVE PIRATES!" Samus screams as lights  
  
appear around the containment, revealing a grotesquely large brain on a  
  
female-looking head. The eyes and mouth were covered by a weird mask with  
  
a breathing filter, and tubes extend from plugs inside of the brain's  
  
medulla. The eye slits glow red.  
  
(PIRATES!! HOW DARE YOU CALL GAMMANS PIRATES-S-S!!! WE GET WHAT WE WANT, AND  
  
THAT IS...ALL!!!) Samus snaps out of the vision and feels a rumbling beneath  
  
her. The concrete from under her soars up and then turns around, and rushes  
  
back down to the ground, flattening Samus under man-made mortar chunks. She  
  
looks at the energy gauge on her visor.  
  
"Damn...only 3 Energy left..." She continues to lie low, knowing that Ridley  
  
was still there.  
  
(RIDLEY...FINISH THE LAST ARAN.) Ridley cocked his head up to Houston's  
  
balcony. He shook his head.  
  
"No. I won't do it right now. It was too easy to beat her for you. Your  
  
powers are beyond awesome. And besides...I owe debts. Debts that require  
  
them both alive."  
  
(BOTH? DO YOU MEAN THAT SOLOMON WOULD FIGHT US?) Ridley turns around.  
  
"Possibly. After all...he does work for the Bounty Hunters." Mother Brain's  
  
high-pitched robotic voice makes a laughing noise. Ridley began to walk away.  
  
(YOU WERE A FOOL TO SAVE HIM...RIDLEY.) Ridley looked back at the rubble and  
  
building.  
  
"They can change their minds someday. You don't need to do a thing."  
  
----------------------------------  
  
(My best fight scene that I have ever made, and I really like the way that  
  
I brought in Mother Brain. The only thing that I don't like, was how short  
  
I made this chapter, and how much shorter the memory scene was than the  
  
conversation with Mother Brain.) 


	4. Matrix Dragons

Chapter 4: "Matrix Dragons"  
  
It was pretty weird to Samus, Houston's idea being that he wanted to act as  
  
"Uncle" from that Jackie Chan cartoon that Ezzie liked to watch. He wanted  
  
Samus to join in, wearing that fruit lady dress and hat, but she obstinately  
  
refused. His outfit for the act was simple enough, but looked somehow too...  
  
tight. He WAS quite a lot bigger than Uncle, but he didn't care.  
  
"So, you don't want to do anything to help, huh?" Samus grins.  
  
"I'll criticize for you." Houston facefalls. That wasn't what he had meant.  
  
He knew that his plan would more than likely Power Bomb, but it was the best   
  
shot he had, and a good lot more original than everything else. The money  
  
for their deal was riding on his success. "Seriously, why do a comedy   
  
routine? Why not perform somewhere else? You could probably ace the karaoke.  
  
I know your Ozzy Ozbourne singing is killer. Or why not we do a mission-in-  
  
mission?" Houston sighs.  
  
"You're an apprentice hunter, you can't legally accept double commissions.  
  
I...uh...well..." Samus shakes her head and walks to the internet terminal.  
  
"You're an apprentice still, too? What rating level?" Houston looks down  
  
at the floor.  
  
"No, I'm not an apprentice, but my rating is still shameful." Samus looks at  
  
Houston while turning in the chair to face him.  
  
"What is it?"  
  
"...Rating level 2." Samus pauses a moment. She laughs to herself inside of  
  
her head. 2?! He should have had higher if he was in the Guild for so long.  
  
"Oh...right. You didn't get very many commissions. It's not laughable. Not  
  
laughable at all."  
  
"Liar. I know 70 people who have laughed about it. They were all targets on  
  
a hit list that I was given one mission. What's amazing is that I wasn't even  
  
able to attack a single one of them. I felt like some all-powerful force was  
  
watching 'em." Samus shrugs.  
  
"So you turned down that mission, eh? Why did you take it in the first   
  
place?" Houston sighs.  
  
"They're called the 'Matrix Dragon Gang'. A secret gamers ring. They have  
  
skills...and if they don't win, they cheat, they hack, they do anything.  
  
But no matter what, they win. And they can all fight, too. Especially the  
  
gang boss. No one knows who he is, but I have my suspicions." Samus lists  
  
a search on the Matrix Dragons. Houston walks over to the door. "Well, I'm  
  
going."  
  
"Good luck, 'Uncle'. May The Chi Be With You." Samus looked at the search  
  
list. Nothing as far as a direct website was concerned. She saw several  
  
message board links, but no direct websites until-  
  
She saw a website for an online RPG owned by the Matrix Dragons. She clicked  
  
on the link and looked at every part of the index page. The title of the  
  
webpage and game was 'METROID: THE RPG'. This amused Samus when she looked  
  
at the character list.  
  
"Hm. Now why would they have a game with me in it? And Houston?   
  
And Hardy? And...well...everyone?" (clueless about the Author Dragon's  
  
near-extensive knowledge of the Metroid universe, it's past is shady, but  
  
we all know about what happened during and after the first game! ^_^)  
  
^  
  
O_O --------------| "I am obviously paying attention to that." (Whoops.  
  
Anyway, back to the fanfic.)  
  
"Let's see here." She looks through all of the fine-print details and the  
  
contract, obviously centering around some guy called Katri Mattrix. "Maybe  
  
I should try a little game of mine that I like to call 'Server Access'."  
  
Samus opens up one of Houston's cracker programs and deftly types in the  
  
data needed to open up the highest level access. Usually, systems like this  
  
had the highest security to prevent hacking characters or other stuff, even  
  
higher security than banks.  
  
'That says a lot about the talent that these geeks have. They can hack   
  
anything if they can hack a game server. Houston was so very right about  
  
them having skills. But...why leave your doors wide open?' It became   
  
obvious to her exactly why they left their server accesses so easy to pry.  
  
She felt a tremoring buzz inside of her left hand. They hacked her chip.  
  
They knew who was peeping. They knew who she was. Everything.   
  
She bangs her hand on the kitchen table, trying to make the vibrating stop,  
  
swearing with every loud BANG noise.  
  
"DAA-MIT!!! DAMMIT! They don't need anything more than tracer programs!!  
  
I forgot about that!! Looks like I'll need to do a little change of location.  
  
Right." Samus gets up, stopped by two scrawny guys dressed in casual black  
  
clothing and regular-looking glasses (no, not sun-glasses, but coke-bottles).  
  
They looked like the most identical twins that identical twins could be.  
  
"Too late to move away...and you can't hide, either. Our boss can find you,  
  
no matter what or where." Samus walks up to the two of them.  
  
"Out of my way. I've got other things to do." The two of them both shove  
  
Samus back, sending her two feet into the air and slamming into the couch,  
  
knocking it over again.  
  
"You boss us without being the boss? That warrants a little brawl to put  
  
you in place! Ready, Arian?" The other nods.  
  
"I'm ready Ayeera!" The two both charge at Samus at the same time. Samus  
  
barely has time to shake her head when she flips off of the couch, just as  
  
the twins come down with a chop that cuts the couch into three parts. Samus  
  
kicks the middle piece up and bashes Arian with it.  
  
"Oh, it's on, brother boys. How about we do this WWE style?"  
  
--------------------------------  
  
"Boss, you see the news?! There was Marduk Agents there! What if Sumisu  
  
saw ya?" A squat, fat guy wearing normal clothes colored black looks up at  
  
a humanoid figure. His aqua-green skin was scaled at all parts of his body   
  
except his face, which looked human enough...if it weren't for the bizarre   
  
color. He wore black, too, but the finest reptilian leather, pants adorned   
  
with deep zippered pockets and a small plain jacket of the same color. His   
  
chest clearly showed, a golden yellow chest and abdomen, as though he was   
  
some kind of cross-bred lizard-man and human. At his left hip, hanging on a   
  
metal hook, a silver tube with a small dish at one end and a small button   
  
near the bottom stayed. His hair was the same color as his pants, and his   
  
eyes were a puzzling olive green. He almost always either looked embarassed   
  
or uninterested about something. He looked uninterested now, though.  
  
"Like you need to worry about me? You forget three major things: One, I  
  
cannot be found unless I want to be found. Two, I can deal with anyone from  
  
Marduk Cult, even that scowling bastige Sumisu. Three...you seriously, uber-  
  
seriously...underestimate dragons. Especially me." The fat guy nods.  
  
"Ye-yes. The grace of Anu is with you, Boss, but...shouldn't you take less  
  
risk?" The humanoid dragon shakes his head.  
  
"No. There will be nothing more risky than my next move, Plamer." The fat  
  
guy looks up at his leader.  
  
"Wh-what move is that? Can the Author Dragon tell me?" He nods and turns  
  
on an internet terminal. The softwares that were used for server defense  
  
did nothing to the hacker, but did trace the chip signal back to the user of  
  
the terminal. She was a small blonde girl barely in her teens.  
  
"To recruit...Samus Aran." Plamer gasped.  
  
"M-m-m-m-m-m-m-m-Master Katri! Please don't chase after her!" Katri flips  
  
a lock of his hair away from his eyes. He smiles at Plamer   
  
"I've already decided. Besides, Ridley survived her. What should mean that  
  
I can't?"  
  
"...Alright, s-sir. But you'd better hurry, Gemini is attacking her now."  
  
"WHAT?!" Katri disappears in a phase-out. He reappears at Houston's apart-  
  
ment, watching as Arian and Ayeera fly into the hallway to the sides of him.  
  
Arian growls. "What! You dare to stand between us like that?!" Ayeera gets  
  
up, too. Arian lunges at Katri with his fist enclosed.  
  
"Yeah!! You pick a fight with Gemini?! Huh...wait! Arian, that's the boss!"  
  
Arian stops himself in mid-punch. "Sorry about that. We only saw someone  
  
standing in between us." Katri grins sheepishly.  
  
"You...just leave Aran to me." The twins nod and bow. Katri watches Samus  
  
fuss about the broken couch. She quite obviously is only paying attention  
  
to the mess that she made.  
  
"How am I gonna explain this to Houston? 'Uh, yeah, a couple of geeks karate  
  
chopped your couch into three pieces'...like that'll really fly with him."  
  
Katri clears his throat. Samus looks up at him.  
  
"How about you just let me say that a couple of my...over-impulsive fighters  
  
got to you." The twins bow again from outside the doorway.  
  
"Sorry, boss." Katri waves his hand. Samus throws down the couch piece that  
  
she was holding earlier and straightens the remaining seats.  
  
"Whatever. Anyway, who are you?" Katri glances at Samus with his head cocked  
  
oddly to the side, as though he was a pet lizard looking at her with just one  
  
eye.  
  
"I got several names to be called by. Boss, Katri Mattrix, Author Dragon-"  
  
Samus cuts him off.  
  
"You...are Author Dragon?" Katri nods.  
  
"Yah. Schneider thought that he could make Sumisu's job easier, but he was  
  
only pulling the Cult's strings so he could get some extra cash. They had  
  
originally intended to kill me, but as you can see, even a sleazy lunkhead  
  
like him saves a life or two on accident, and Sumisu doesn't trust him at  
  
all anymore. All the ME that he's hunting for are missing. Guess who has  
  
'em now?" Samus shrugs as though she could care less. "We do. Snatched  
  
the most important ones, so that Sumisu can't get them. We're his enemy.  
  
And our motives aren't for conquest, either." Katri claps twice, and the  
  
broken couch turns into two fancy leather seats and a whole new couch.  
  
"I can only guess what you want to do." Katri makes a gesture.  
  
"Guess away." Samus looks over at the TV, off, but still alluring to look  
  
at.  
  
"You're all gamers. You don't want Sumisu to take that away from you all,  
  
because it's your purpose in life to just have fun, and make things fun for  
  
others...sometimes. But anyway-" Katri holds his left hand up.  
  
"Hup. You already hit the nail on the head. Yes, we're all gamers, most of  
  
us are hackers, too. We're all trained in any different kind of martial arts,  
  
too. Capoeira(is this spelled right?), Dji-da-pa-do-ko-ryu(I'll give a little  
  
background to this one later), and sumo." Samus stifles a laugh.  
  
"S...sumo?!" Katri lets out a sharp breath. His expression changes to  
  
one of irritation.  
  
"What, you think that all gamers are scrawny geeks? Only the ones with a  
  
blast-furnace metabolism. Most of who we have are fat-asses that just eat,  
  
hack, code, and play on the internet. I make 'em do sumo because it teaches  
  
them a couple things." Samus still fights off laughing.  
  
"Like...how to pull around their own weight?"  
  
"No. I won't divulge any details. Anyway, what I came here for is to ask  
  
you something." Samus looks at the wet-bar.  
  
"What?" Katri walks over to her and kneels to be eye-level with her.  
  
"I want you to join us. You already fight against Sumisu. I can give you  
  
the ME that you need. I even have it on me right now." They both hear a  
  
clapping noise. Looking up at the doorway, they both see a middle-aged man  
  
wearing a tuxedo, clapping.  
  
"Well, well, well...it's Miss Aran-derson again...along with the fool who  
  
gets--in--my--way. Now, you're going to be in need of a lesson, little girl.  
  
No one who wants to live, refuses Mr. Sumisu and escapes from him like you did  
  
a few days ago. And siding with these...low-class social retards, isn't the  
  
best thing that you want on your record, now is it? I could get you expelled  
  
from the Guild on a baseless charge of something that is beyond your   
  
probation. And that fat moron Hardy, his hands are tied. He can do nothing  
  
without causing the complete and total collapse of the Federation." Sumisu  
  
draws a weird pistol.  
  
"I wouldn't try anything funny, either. Either of you is exactly as   
  
vulnerable as the other against this gun. It's a special gun. It's got a  
  
poison inside it's bullets that can kill anything in seconds...even dragons."  
  
Samus lunges at Sumisu and bowls him over, grabbing his gun arm by the wrist.  
  
"Dammit, you had better not have done anything to Ridley!"  
  
"Hm? Oh, that one red dragon. We can't kill him. He's being protected by  
  
some giant brain, light-years across the galaxy. He's not anywhere near here  
  
right now though, so...you don't have to worry. He's not dead." Samus shakes  
  
her head.  
  
"And neither will be me or Katri." Samus punches Sumisu with her free arm  
  
and knocks him out cold. "C'mon, let's go."  
  
Houston walks down the hallway to his apartment and sees Samus rushing toward  
  
him.  
  
"Uh, Samus, where are you going?" Samus grabs his sleeve and tries to pull  
  
him.  
  
"We got no time! You might want to look into following me until things cool  
  
off around your place." Houston just goes 'wha' as Katri drags him and Samus  
  
away from the apartments to Houston's black T-Bird car. A click and whine  
  
noise behind them said only one thing. Schneider.  
  
"Hello, Samus. Thanks for luring out the Author Dragon for me."  
  
-----------------------------------  
  
(So awesome. Now it's to the next part of this story, the main piece that  
  
pulls both Samus and Houston together in one fan-fic, as their mission to  
  
stop Sumisu from finding Nibiru continues, and Samus nearly finds out the  
  
little thing about Houston being her brother.  
  
While on the note of mentioning the final piece to this now three-part  
  
fan-fic, I'd like to say that Schneider is more the center of the next  
  
one. Instead of covering more of Samus or Houston, I'm going to cover  
  
more of him, and watch as his inner villian plays out.) 


End file.
